A Lesson in Villainy
by doinstuff
Summary: In which Danny wishes for something stupid and Desiree just happens to be waiting for his slip. Danny soon finds himself waking up not in his room, but in the master bedroom of the newly built mansion just outside of Amity, owned by none other than Vlad.
1. Chapter 1

_This idea wasn't mine, but _Firefury Amahira's_. The most amazing author ever._ _I love her stuff in a non-stalkerish, pitchfork-free way. _

_Also, thanks goes to my new awesome beta, _Esme Phantom_. Who's awesome haha._

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**A Lesson in Villainy:**

How Vlad Kept My Rep

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_"It's payback. It helps me on the inside."_ - Danny

Danny hadn't been to school for a couple of days now. Instead, he was stuck shivering in bed with a 102-degree fever, boring school books, and moldy Fenton Toast. He heard the front door slam downstairs and guessed his father was finally leaving the house after working on his latest invention ("Hey Dan, come have a look at this: The Fenton Soul Swapper! It's gonna take some time, but eventually it should be working like a charm!") Danny had mentally checked it under his long "must avoid" list. Apparently the invention was designed to "transfer abilities" and swap "physical ectoplasmic manifestations" of certain ghosts. Whatever _that_ meant. He remembered asking his dad why they would even need it. And he remembered recieving a _long_ boring lecture in reply. Something about the study of ghostly activities and something something about how their reactions to certain ghost weapons was necessary to understand them. Or something. Suffice to say, he tuned _that_ out.

He rolled over on his side and heaved a bored sigh. His house was totally devoid of people to talk to, aside from the Ghost Gabber that had been lying smoking on his bedside table ever since he had blasted it a half hour ago. He shuddered as a feverish chill ran down his back, and dug himself deeper into the pile of sheets and covers, sighing and gazing longingly outside the window at the cheery sunny day outside. Sam and Tuck were at school without him, probably having just as much fun as he was. _Well...,_ he thought. _At least they have each other._

When he made it clear he was concerned about the town's well-being, Sam and Tucker had promptly informed him that Valerie wasn't doing a "half-bad job." Actually, it seemed she was doing fairly well, because he hadn't sensed a ghost the whole time he'd been sick. Besides, he knew better than to worry about Valerie. It wasn't like he was going to be MIA for more than a week. Valerie could handle it. He returned his eyes to yesterday's homework that was lying on top of the covers, completely blank. His vision blurred as he let his thoughts stumble over each other, only half aware of his surroundings.

His eyes had just fluttered shut when a loud obnoxious knocking at the front door startled him awake. He jumped up with a yelp, and ended up on the floor. He knew he had to answer it, because, of course, both of his parents were out hunting ghosts, leaving him completely alone. He groaned, completely motionless for moment, sorely tempted to just leave it and pretend that no one was home. But slowly, he pushed himself off of the ground, wincing in pain from his achy muscles. He trudged out of the room and was snail pacing it down the stairs when the knocking sounded again, louder and angrier this time. Danny grabbed the rail so as not to fall when the room around him spun from dizziness and grumbled as loud as his sore throat would allow, "I'm coming, I'm coming…."

When he got to the door, he turned the door handle with a sniffle, quickly wiping his nose so the person behind the door wouldn't be thoroughly grossed out. He opened the door and let out a yelp.

"Vl- Vlad-!" He was interrupted by a small coughing fit and turned away. He rubbed his sore throat and turned with another sniffle back to the man on the other side of the doorway. "What do you want?"

"Not even going to let your dear old Uncle Vlad in, hmm?" Vlad Masters shifted his weight on the welcome mat and crossed his arms with a pseudo-sympathetic look on his face. "Oh, my, Daniel, you look a little worse for wear, don't you?"

Danny didn't reply. Instead, he inhaled sharply and suddenly sneezed on the older half-ghost. Vlad immediately took several steps back, holding his hands up to protect himself from the boy's onslaught of saliva.

"Butter biscuits! Daniel!" he yelled in surprise, pulling out a handkerchief from the pocket of his sullied Armani suit. To his surprise, the boy actually apologized.

"Sorry…" For a second, he looked sincere, but when Vlad blinked, the boy's expression of irritation returned. "Why are you here?"

"That's no way to talk to a family friend, my boy," Vlad said, inviting himself in and roughly pushing past Daniel into the FentonWorks foyer. The boy stumbled back and Vlad looked around the empty house. "Your father wouldn't happen to be home, would he?" Daniel's expression hardened.

"I may be sick, but I'm not _that_ sick," he sniffled. "It's not like I'm going to curl up in bed and go to sleep with you here. I can still fight you. Not that I should be worried. Dad'd mop the floor with you. Again." It was Vlad's turn for his expression to harden.

"I only came by for a quick chat, dear boy. And I'll have you know that was pure luck! Anyway, it's all in the past, now. We've _long_ since let bygones be bygones, haven't we?"

Danny snorted, which didn't really mix well with his runny nose. "Sure. Bygones."

"Well, where are they? Where are your parents?" Vlad asked again impatiently.

"Ghost hunting," Danny turned back into the house, heading towards the kitchen. He was still on the alert with Vlad in his house, but he sure wasn't as ready to fight as he boasted he was. He pretended to tolerate the old man's presence, knowing full well that he would stand as much of a chance against Plasmius as the Box Ghost would. "You want anything? I think mom left some Froot Loops on the table…."

Vlad ignored the provocation with a snide grin. "No, no, Daniel. That's quite all right. I'm afraid I'm a very busy man. Political business and all…." He turned back to the still open door. "However, if you need someone to look after you, feel free to make an appointment. My office in Amity Hall is always open!"

With that, Vlad closed the door and from the window, Danny watched him make his way to the sleek stretch limo that was waiting for him on the road. He idly wondered why one person would even _need_ a stretch limo.

"'My office is always open,'" Danny scoffed in a mocking voice as the limo drove away. "I don't need a _babysitter_."

He turned from the window and made his way back upstairs to his room. His thoughts turned to the reason that Vlad had come in the first place. _'Where are your parents?'_ he had asked. Why would Vlad want to talk to his parents? He never came by without some super-villainous plot in his mind. Danny climbed into bed with one last sigh before losing himself to sleep.

"I wish I knew what Vlad was up to…."

Little did he know, he wasn't alone and would not be waking up in his familiar home in Amity Park, but in an unrealistically and extravagantly luxurious mansion far away from the comfort of his own bedroom.

_"So you have wished it...so shall it be."_

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Jeeze! Sorry, **TUE?**s on a hiatus since I'm _still_ figuring it all out. **Switching Places**, I've just kind of become bored with. I'll finish them both... sometime. Despite similarities, this has absolutely nothing to do with either of my other stories. I know it's a kind of cliché plot idea. But cliché as it may be, the story's definitely _not_ an overdone one. I only found one other story like this and it was written in alternating first person as opposed to third...like this one. Plus, it's an excuse to put quotes up at the top since I haven't done that with any of my other stories. You know you love the quotes. So, without further adieu... I think I'll start the next chapter.


	2. Chapter 2

**Lesson in Villainy:**

How Vlad Kept My Rep

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**Sam**: "Well, be careful. The last thing you'd want to do is invite your arch enemy into your own house."

**Vlad**: "Ah, hel-_lo_, Daniel!"

**Sam**: "Too late."

-Reign Storm

**FentonWorks:**

"Danny? Danny, honey?" Vlad heard Maddie's sweet voice call, drawing him out of a deep sleep. He didn't open his eyes. Instead, he clenched them shut in order to block out the light that was hitting his face and shining through his eyelids. Groaning as he desperately clung to the last shreds of sweet unconciousness, he noticed a dull ache of a nasty cold and hoped he hadn't caught Daniel's cold. He had several early morning meetings and a speech scheduled for today….

Somewhere along the lines of logical thinking, Vlad blearily wondered why Maddie had called him by Daniel's name in his dream. _What an odd dream._

"Oh, Maddie…," he mumbled as he rolled over, trying to fall back asleep. He was jerked awake when a hand on his shoulder pushed him back on his back and gently shook him.

"Danny, sweetie, wake up." Vlad opened an eye and gasped when it adjusted to the brightness in the room and his vision cleared.

"Maddie!" he cried, jumping into a sitting position. Somehow, he was shocked, confused, and ecstatic all at the same time. Maddie jerked back from her son's face so as not to be hit and frowned.

"That's 'mother' to you, young man."

"_Mother?_"

Maddie ignored him. "Look, sweetie, you've missed a lot of school lately, and I understand you were sick, but your father and I don't want you to miss any more classes than you have to. You look a lot better today, so if you feel good enough, I would like you to go to school." Vlad wondered how much subtle hinting she could possibly stuff into two sentences.

"S-school?" he stuttered. That was when he noticed his surroundings. Something was not right. He was definitely not in his room. The walls were baby blue, for one, and they were covered in stupid space posters and pictures of people he vaguely recognized, but didn't know. Where the heck was he?

"Yes, Danny, I'll be downstairs. Why don't you get ready?" With that, Maddie left the room, leaving him alone to figure out where he was and what, exactly, was going on.

He stretched and shifted on the bed, so that his feet dangled off the side. He rubbed his eyes, but suddenly stopped. Something was definitely wrong.

He looked down and jumped with another yelp (so uncharacteristic of him) and two scrawny legs and feet hit the ground. They were so pathetically thin, he didn't know how they were even supporting his weight. He put a hand to his forehead to get over the shock and felt a lock of hair brushing against his hand, which was very strange as he always slept with his hair tied back. He grabbed his bangs and pulled them down, looking up as far as he could at them. When he saw them, he cried out, stumbling over his legs, and fell to the ground. His hair was black! It hadn't been black in his human form in years.

Vlad picked himself up and ran out of the room in a desperate search for a bathroom mirror. He opened up the first door he saw, across the hall from the room he had run from, and yanked it open. Jazmine was inside what he guessed was her room, combing her hair in front of a vanity. She dropped the brush in surprise when he barged unannounced and uninvited into her room.

"Danny!" she squealed in surprise. Vlad paid her no mind, but ran at her and shoved her from in front of the vanity mirror.

"Get out of the way, you silly girl!" he yelled, turning to see his reflection. He brought two hands to his face, running one over his cheek and one through his black hair.

He gasped. The reflection's eyes were too bright to be his, the facial structure too young and small. There wasn't even any trace of stubble, and the jaw line was too soft. Nothing in that reflection belonged to Vlad, because, as he realized with heart-stopping horror, the reflection wasn't him. No, in front of Vlad, staring back at him from the mirror with an expression that conveyed exactly what he was feeling, was Daniel Fenton.

"Oh, Fudge!"

--

**Just Outside of Amity Park:**

Danny snapped his eyes open when an annoying ringing echoed in his ears. He closed his eyes again and pulled his pillow over his head.

"Go away…."

Unfortunately for him, the phone didn't listen. It rang a second time.

"Mo-_om_!" he yelled, his cry muffled by the pillow. _Why isn't she picking up the phone?_ Then he remembered something pretty significant. _Wait. I don't have a phone in my room._

He pushed the pillow off the bed and groped around in the general area of where the ringing noise was coming from. His hands eventually found what felt like a phone and he picked it up and brought it to his ears, eyes still closed.

"…Hello? Don't you know what time it is? It's like… five AM, or something," he mumbled into the receiver. A deep, angry voice sounded in his ears in reply.

"It's eight o'clock, Masters. Where are you?"

"…Masters?"

"You were due to give your speech to the public in front of Amity Hall thirty _minutes_ ago!"

"Speech?" Danny yawned, half awake. "Mr. Lancer, I thought we finished our oral reports a week ago. You failed me, remember? You didn't tell me we had to redo them…."

"What the hell are you talking about, Masters? Get your ass down here, this instant. The press is waiting!"

"Hey!" was all Danny could say in reply to the offensive language he was unaccustomed to hear adults using towards him. Now fully awake, he dropped the phone back onto the receiver with a loud click, but not before adding, "And I'm _not_ Mr. Masters!"

He sat up slowly, rubbing his eyes to clear his vision. _Well, at least I don't feel sick anymore…_, he thought with another yawn. When he opened his eyes, he gasped. He wasn't in his room!

The walls were a thick grey limestone lined with maroon draperies and tapestries hanging everywhere. Thick curtains were smothering any light that tried to make its way through the windows. His bed even had a _canopy_.

_What the…?_ Danny thought, sitting up stiffly. The place reminded him of the guest bedroom Vlad had him stay in during his college reunion and he gasped in shocked realization. Vlad must have kidnapped him!

Danny jumped out of bed, intent on finding the front door of... wherever he was, but for some reason, the youthful grace that would have helped him keep his balance had disappeared. He was too heavy to stop the momentum of his jump and he fell, face forward, onto the wood floor.

"Ow!" he yelped, as his nose connected with oak. He brought his hands to his face in an attempt to lesson the pain, but as soon as he did, he immediately brought them back down again. His fingers were long! Way longer than they should be. And his nose felt straight. Very unlike his own ski-jump of a nose.

"Wha…?" he mumbled through clenched teeth and his voice echoed off the stone walls of the large, barren room. And that was when he noticed it. His voice. Deep, like that of an older man… but, fortunately, it wasn't as deep as he knew his voice would be if he actually _were_ an older version of himself. So it wasn't _his_ voice. Actually, it sounded suspiciously like-

_Ding-dong!_

A doorbell sounded. Danny stood where he was, contemplating what to do next. Maybe, if he followed the bell, he would find the front door….

_Ding-dong._

The doorbell sounded again. Why wasn't _Vlad_ getting it? Danny huffed and crossed his arms. Vlad kidnapped him; he definitely was _not_ going to get the door for him. He uncrossed his arms when he realized how small his chest was in relation to his arms. What happened overnight? Did his cold cause him to suddenly become disproportionate?

"I am _not_ going to get the door for-"

He was interrupted by a loud knocking that resounded throughout the mansion. Danny sighed and walked down a hallway, trying to follow the noise.

"Jeez, I've been reduced from 'perfect half-ghost son' to 'doorbell slave,'" he grumbled under his breath as he found the stairs and started his descent. He reached the door and pulled it open. Standing on the porch of the mansion was a federal postal worker holding a small brown package. And it wasn't just any postal worker, either. It was a sickeningly greenish _ghost_ postal worker.

"Package for Mr. Masters," it said in a vaguely familiar voice. Before Danny had time to respond, it threw the package at him and disappeared. With his reflexes somewhat slower than they usually were, he fumbled with the package before actually managing to catch it with a steady grip. Danny glared at the spot where the ghost had been standing and said, "What's _wrong_ with everybody today? I'M _NOT_ VLAD!"

With an angry huff, he slammed the door and retreated back inside the mansion, looking at the label on the package in his hands.

"'… To Mr. Masters,'" he read. Then he blinked. "Ew, who would send Vlad anything? …From…Valerie Grey?! Oh, I gotta see this!"

Danny looked around to make sure that Vlad wasn't anywhere in sight, quickly found a chair next to a coffee table, and sat down. He then set the package in front of him on the table, tore it open. He dug around the Styrofoam peanuts inside until he found a small piece of paper, which he then pulled out and opened.

"'Dear Mr. Masters,'" Danny read aloud. "'Thanks so much for the new updates for my suit!' Wait a sec, Vlad still gives her stuff for her suit? No _wonder_ she keeps getting better! 'Unfortunately, that annoying ghost-boy was able to smash one of my guns'—heheh, oops—'so I was wondering if you could fix it for me? I would be extremely grateful….'"

Danny skimmed through the rest of the letter and rolled his eyes. "Ugh," he said, dropping the letter to resume digging around in the box. "What_ever_."

His hands found something cold and metallic and he pulled it out. It was the gun he had torn off of Valerie's suit a few days ago, blackened by an ecto-blast. After inspecting it for a few seconds, he threw it back in the box.

"Woah, talk about things you could really care less about…." He was about to get up when a slight movement caught his eye. He spun, knocking over the box and spilling peanuts and scrap metal all over the floor, and cried, "Vlad!"

He ran at the man, an angry expression on his face, diving for his stomach when he was close enough, and-

_Clash!_

Danny felt like he hit a wall. He fell backwards, stars dancing in his eyes.

"Jeez, Vlad? Have you been working out?" he brought a hand to his face. "No one's abs are _that_ hard."

There was no reply as Danny slowly regained his vision as the stars faded.

"Vlad?"

Vlad was there, in front of him, but completely silent. Then Danny noticed something. Vlad had cracked. Almost like a mirror. He looked up and saw a frame.

Then it all clicked. Why his voice sounded weird, why he felt humongous, why everyone was calling him "Mr. Masters," and what he was even doing here.

Vlad _was_ in front of him, but he was staring at a mirror. Vlad was his reflection.

Danny did the only thing he could, just then. He screamed like a girl, so loud that everyone in the wealthy neighborhood was sure to hear him.

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Thanks for reviewing! Okay, all I did was delete it and repost a version I bothered to look through for mistakes, so sorry if you thought it was an update.


	3. Chapter 3

**A Lesson in Villainy:**

How Vlad Kept My Rep

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"But—but—"

"No buts! Just get out of my room," Jazzmine ordered her brother. "It's way too early for this—we're practically late for school!"

Vlad soon found himself being shoved out of Daniel's older sister's room and thrown into the hallway. He noted that she was surprisingly strong for a girl of her age and height. But it didn't matter, because as soon as he turned around to give her a piece of his mind, she slammed the door in his face.

"Why that...," he muttered angrily before he stalked down the hall back to the room he now knew was Daniel's. Jazzmine had been right about one thing, however. It was way too early for Vlad to be angry. He was too tired to even blast a hole through Daniel's pathetic NASA posters. So he settled for throwing his now much more nimble body onto the bed. He thought he could just fall back asleep, but instead, he fell on something thin and sharp. He heard—and felt—something break underneath the weight of his torso, and he dug under the sheets, pulling out broken plastic.

"Dumpty...Humpty?" he read. He had broken a CD case and bent the CD inside. He managed enough anger to growl and throw it across the tiny, blue room before he collapsed into the uncomfortable pillows. Unlike Daniel, he could tell the difference between plush and real goose feathers. "Why am I so tired?" he wondered, before he let his heavy eyes shut.

He had slept for all of five minutes before he felt someone tug on his arm.

"Danny, get up!"

Vlad moaned and buried his head further underneath the pillows. Jazzmine. Of course.

"Get your clothes on," she said. "You don't have time for breakfast anymore."

What was he going to do about school? It wasn't as if he could just go and have no one notice "Danny's" change of grades and work ethic...or could he?

Could he?

The pillow covering his head was suddenly torn out of his grip and the light hit him full in the face.

"Aahh!" he cried as Jazzmine dragged him out of bed by his legs and he fell onto the thin, hard carpet.

"What's wrong with you?" she said as she stepped over him to get to his closet. "Usually you're the early bird. Fighting ghosts at sunrise and always on time for breakfast."

_Sugar coated danishes!_ Vlad thought in frustration. He had just remembered about his foe's abilities. Could he still change form? Would it be the same, or would he have to do something different? Would he have to re-learn everything, or was it the same for all half ghosts? He stopped thinking about it when something soft hit his face and he could no longer see. He angrily pulled Daniel's signature tee off his head.

"Danny, you have to get dressed," Jazzmine said. "You're flying to school, and that's final. I'm not ruining my perfect time record just because you didn't get any sleep last night."

Vlad bit his lip to avoid saying something to the girl he would later regret. Which reminded him, how did Daniel usually talk? This called for a crash course from _How to Speak Hip for the Unhip_. Unfortunately, Daniel didn't seem to have a copy. Actually, Daniel didn't seem to have any books at all.

Jazzmine left, and, as he dressed for Daniel's school, Vlad began to think. While the most tempting thing to do was run away to find and confront Daniel, doing so could have serious repercussions. For instance, what if Daniel found that he liked being a powerful billionaire, and decided, just to spite him, he would choose to stay the way he was? Or worse, what if Daniel decided to use the opportunity to get back at him for becoming mayor? The boy could do anything at all, and in this position he would be powerless to stop him.

So, for now, he decided it would be best to attend Daniel's school, play the role of a fourteen-year-old boy, and find Daniel when he had the time—like after class was over for the day. Who knew, maybe it would actually be fun for him to be a child again.

-

"What am I going to do, what am I going to do?" he wondered desperately. Danny couldn't believe what was going on. "How is this even possible?" He almost felt like crying. _What should I do?_

Danny picked himself up off of the ground. He was going to call Jazz. She would know what to do. She always knew what to do. Except, he thought smugly, when it comes to ghost problems.

But he picked up Vlad's totally retro phone and twirled the dial anyway, stopping on all ten digits of Jazz's cell phone numbers. "Please pick up," he begged into the receiver. "Please pick up. Pleasepleasepl—"

"Hello!" his sister's chipper voice sung over the phone.

"Jazz!" Danny cried. "Jazz, you'll never believe—"

"You've reached Jazz's cell," she interrupted. "I'm not available right now, so please leave a message at the 'boo.'"

"Boo-oo," a wavering mechanical voice chimed and Danny quickly slammed the phone down.

"Okay, Fenton," he said to himself, "Just breathe. Breathe. Maybe she didn't hear it ring."

He tried calling again, and this time, with success.

"Hello, this better be an emergency," he heard his sister growl.

"Jazz!" he cried, and then winced at how high pitched he had let Vlad's voice become. He coughed and let his tone slide into a deeper, more adult-sounding voice. "I mean, Jazz," he said gruffly. "You'll never guess what happened to me!"

There was a slight pause, and then, "Who is this? Is this—...is this Vlad?"

"No! It's Danny!"

There was another pause, and Danny's heart fell when he assumed that she had pulled the phone away from her ear to look at the area code. Talking over the phone was going to get him nowhere, and he knew it.

"Ew, stop calling me, you creep!"

A click, and the line went dead. Danny sighed and hung up. He ran a hand through his disgustingly long hair and sighed heavily just as the phone rang. His eyebrows furrowed as he picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Masters, if you wanted to take a sick day, you could have called," an angry voice yelled. Danny cringed and held the phone away from his ear as it went on. "You had us waiting for an hour—an hour!—before we called off the meeting. It's been postponed until later this evening unless you call to tell us to cancel, you got it?"

"Uh, yes sir," Danny said with a nod before realizing the man on the other end couldn't see him. "Oh, and if you don't mind me asking... I can't seem to recall what, exactly, the meeting was about."

He expected another explosion, but all he got was, "Simple. The design for the remodeling of the left wing of the local high school?"

Danny's eyes widened. "Remodeling?"

"Yes, the meeting was specifically for you to give input about how you want the school's money to be spent."

The silver lining had finally just made itself visible.

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**A/N:** Hey guys, thanks so much for reviewing!


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